1540 – Thomas Cromwell is executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of treason. Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.
1854 – USS Constellation (1854), the last all-sail warship built by the United States Navy, is commissioned.
1866 – At the age of 18, Vinnie Ream becomes the first and youngest female artist to receive a commission from the U.S. government for a statue (of Abraham Lincoln).
1868 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is certified, establishing African American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law.
1896 – The city of Miami, Florida is incorporated.
1914 – In the culmination of the July Crisis, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, igniting World War I.
1915 – The United States begins a 20-year occupation of Haiti.
1932 – U.S. President Herbert Hoover orders the United States Army to forcibly evict the “Bonus Army” of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, D.C.
1935 – First flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
 |
A mural in west Belfast, Ireland, from 2005, the year the Provisional Irish Republican Army announced the ending of its armed campaign.
1945 – A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, killing 14 and injuring 26.
1965 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.
1973 – Summer Jam at Watkins Glen: Nearly 600,000 people attend a rock festival at the Watkins Glen International Raceway.
1976 – The Tangshan earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 moment magnitude flattens Tangshan in the People’s Republic of China, killing 242,769 and injuring 164,851.
1996 – The remains of a prehistoric man are discovered near Kennewick, Washington. Such remains will be known as the Kennewick Man.
2001 – Australian Ian Thorpe becomes the first swimmer to win six gold medals at a single World Championship.
2002 – Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, are rescued after 77 hours underground.
2005 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army calls an end to its thirty-year-long armed campaign in Northern Ireland.
Births
1866 – Beatrix Potter, English children’s author and illustrator (“The Tale of Peter Rabbit”)
1929 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, American First Lady (1961-63)
1945 – Jim Davis, American cartoonist, creator of the comic strip “Garfield”
Deaths
1741 – Antonio Vivaldi, Italian Baroque composer (The Four Seasons)